Titanfall's Anti-Cheat System Pits Cheaters Against Cheaters

Cheating in online games is going to happen no matter what companies try to do to counter it, but Respawn Entertainment has decided to take an interesting approach in Titanfall. Since the launch of Titanfall on PC, Respawn has been collecting data via the FairFight, which is the same anti-cheat software used in other Electronic Arts games, like Battlefield 4. This past Friday, Respawn decided to flip the switch, so to speak, and has now started banning cheaters – but not in the conventional sense.

If/when you are banned, "*FairFight: Cheat detected" will be displayed in red text on your Private Lobby screen (see the image below). While in other games that would typically mean you cannot play the game on official servers, that's not the case with Titanfall. Instead, Respawn will still let you play...with other cheaters. Respawn is calling it "the Wimbledon of aimbot contests" and hopes that "the aimbot cheat you paid for really is the best, or these all-cheater matches could be frustrating for you."

If a banned member happens to create a party with non-cheater friends, everyone in said party will be treated as banned for that play session, forcing everyone to play in the cheaters-only servers. However, if you're one of the non-cheaters, once you leave the party, you'll join back up with the non-cheaters and, most importantly, you won't be penalized for playing with a cheater – it only matters if you're the one doing the cheating.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm sure as hell not going to cheat to find out, but I wonder if there will start to be Twitch streams and YouTube videos of cheaters-only matches, or if people will be too embarrassed.